Acclimatization

First thing I should mention is that La Paz feels a lot like Kathmandu. The people are similar, the dirty smells and honking horns assault your senses, ramshackle buildings cling to the surrounding hillsides, and haphazardly strewn together power lines hang across every street and alley. 

Yesterday I spent the day acclimatizing to the high altitude. Walking anywhere was a chore; climbing the stairs of my hostel would leave me winded. I explored a bit of the market area and found a place to sit down and have a coca tea, a natural remedy for altitude sickness. Coca is also the natural ingredient for cocaine, but in its plant form it's completely legal. And it did help with the altitude, much to my pleasure.

I couldn't spend much time walking around as the activity was starting to give me a headache, so I came back to the hostel, chilled for a bit, went out and had a three course meal for less than $3, and spent the rest of the night drinking beer and teaching an American guy and a Scottish girl how to play crib.

I had a fitful sleep last night, the headache symptoms of the altitude always seem to appear in the middle of the night for me. After some breakfast in the morning and a hot shower I headed out with some other people for a coffee and to do a walking tour that took us around the major sights in La Paz. The weather turned out to be beautiful for it, and I seemed to do a lot better walking around than I did yesterday.

Tonight will be an early night for me, I have to wake up at 4:30 to catch my flight to Uyuni where I'll start my Salt Flats Tour.